Friday Night Unplugged #0: An Introduction

Welcome to the first edition of Friday Night Unplugged, a brand new column for The Average Gamer where I guide you through some of my favourite tabletop games and why YOU! Yes you, the average player, should invest in them.

From rules-light, 2-minute setup games like Zombie Dice to epic sagas such as Arkham Horror or Order of The Shtick, this new weekly column will guide you through the ups and downs of tabletop gaming.

That’s right. Tabletop. This isn’t just going to be boardgames. We will also be covering card, dice, collectible and other such games along the way. We may even stumble into the realms of tabletop RPGs.

Why Friday?

Friday is important: it’s the last day of the working week; it’s the night some groups meet for Friday Night Magic, ironically held on a Thursday at my local’ and well, it’s just plain cool. Most nights in my house are game nights. Fridays however, we attempt to get our friends together and run through a night of camaraderie, drinks and fun. Sure we could do this without boardgames but they bring something to the table(top). With this column I hope to introduce you to the things we do and hopefully inspire you to pick something up for yourselves.

Why Tabletop Games?

Video Games are awesome, there is no denying that. The mixture of audiovisual stimuli and the sheer mental willpower it takes to finish some games makes them worthy of our time. Tabletop games however don’t have that, what they do have is something equally important. They have freedom.

Sure, video Games like Skyrim have freedom of what to do, what to become, what to wear; that’s all cool but they show us that we don’t always have the chance to imagine the picture before its actually been painted.

Secondly, tabletop games aren’t held back by massive budgets. It sounds weird to say but video games with huge budgets have to be blockbusters to succeed. Tabletop games? No. If you want to play a game where you have to stop penguins from invading the earth I’m sure there’s one out there somewhere.

Thirdly, tabletop games are incredibly social. Yeah we have cocial games out there on the net and we have XBL and PSN to allow us to communicate with our friends while playing but nothing beats actually sitting with your friends and playing a game together in actual person.

I Don’t Have a Table

Neither do I. Play on your floor. Play on the kitchen work top. Anywhere there is space is usable.

How’s This Going To Work?

Friday Night Unplugged will run solo for the first month while we get it flowing. After that, the FNU column will be part of a larger group of  Gaming Unplugged articles. We love all things gaming here at The Average Gamer and we want you to as well. We will be looking at everything from board quality to rules and of course factoring in value for money.

Really, this is all about fun. We’ll be venturing into new realms, trying to keep our sanity free from the touch of great Cthulhu, discussing some old favourites and who knows, maybe we’ll get to see what happens when zombies and Santa collide.

There we have it. You know what we’re doing and when we’re doing it. Now we want you to get involved. Tell us about your favourite unplugged gaming moments, recent games you’ve picked up or even games you want to know more about. We’ll do our best to feature as many games as possible and we hope you’ll have as much fun as we do.

Next week on Friday Night Unplugged: It’s time to break out the lockpicks as the FNU playtesters face off for loot and glory for their group of thieves within the infamous Guild of Thieves. Find swag, betrayal and sneaky gameplay galore as we tackle the new reprint of City of Thieves from Fantasy Flight Games.